African Souvenir

I'm staying with my parents this week so I've had time to browse around the house (and my old bedroom) checking out some stuff. It's been a lot of fun looking at yearbooks, pictures and diaries.

Since my family has travelled a lot over the years, we have collected some weird items. Perhaps the weirdest is a coffin that resides in the lower family room. This was brought back from Ghana by my brother a couple of years ago.

In Ghana, caskets are designed to be symbolic of your life. In this case, it is in the shape of a lion so the prospective owner could be a strong hunter or a virile leader. For a while, my brother also had a crab, an airplane, a cow and something that looked like a cougar.

The lion is a little on the small side so either Ghanians are quite short or else they are chopped up into pieces so that they can fit.

Without a dismembered body inside, it is a great piece of art.

The lion comes complete with testicles which were decorated for Christmas.

It is important to be festive.